Madeleine McCann: Kate And Gerry’s Blood, Threat And Tears
MADDYWATCH - Anorak’s at-a-glance guide to press coverage of Madeleine McCann.
THE SUN front page: “KATE’S AGONY – CONFESS & YOU’RE OUT IN A YEAR.”
“Deal of blood, threat and tears.” Kate McCann is being interviewed by police. This is a “highly-charged confrontation, Portuguese officers citing forensic evidence told the GP she would receive a jail sentence of between two and three years if she signed a confession.”
Kate McCann is “horrified”. Says she: “How dare you?”
A source tells the paper: “The police were trying to get Kate to say she had amnesia or was in shock or had a breakdown. They said if she signed the confession she’d serve a year and that her husband would not be charged and could go home. It was effectively emotional blackmail.”
“SHOCKED” Gerry McCann has been named as a formal suspect.
THE SUN SAYS: “But the allegations made yesterday against Madeleine’s distraught mother Kate are astonishing and, in places, farcical. A suspicious page of the Bible left open? A call to a priest on the day of Maddie’s disappearance? Not exactly a smoking gun.”
Do all crimes involve a smoking gun?
The Sun concludes: “The Sun desperately wants justice for Maddie. But the greatest pity is that she is the one person who seems to have been forgotten in this mess of incompetence.”
And the Press continue to watch the parents.
DAILY EXPRESS front page: “MADELEINE: DEATH ON MUM’S BIBLE.”
THE WORLD’S GREATEST NEWSPAPER writes of “THE DAY THE JEERING STARTED”.
“Just two days ago Kate McCann, 39, was regarded almost universally as a victim who had suffered unimaginable agony. Families everywhere shared her heartbreak at losing her beautiful daughter. But it was clear yesterday, as the GP arrived to be formally named as a suspect in her daughter’s disappearance, that much of that sympathy has now gone.”
The crowd outside the police station – 400-strong – goes into a “frenzy” when Kate McCann arrives. “There were whistles, then jeers and boos before some in the crowd began to shout insults. ‘Whore… daughter of a whore,’ some yelled in Portuguese.”
The Express translates.
A local man says: “They will find this more and more because in Portugal harming a child is the worst thing…The Portuguese people took them to their hearts and now we feel cheated. It will not be nice in Portugal for them now.”
Kate is “cool and collected”.
DAILY MAIL front page: “THE ACCUSED. Portuguese police’s staggering grilling of Madeleine mother.
• Why was her blood in your car?
• Did you drug her that night?
• Confess and get just two years.”
DAILY STAR front page: “YOU KILLED MADDIE.”
DAILY MIRROR front page: “MADELEINE SENSATION. We have found her blood in the boot of your hire car.. DID YOU KILL HER BY ACCIDENT?” This is “what police asked Kate McCann during 16-hour grilling”.
THE GUARDIAN front page: “Mother, victim…suspect: police target Kate McCann.”
THE TELEGRAPH: “Kate and Gerry McCann named as suspects,” says the headline.
“Mr McCann stared straight ahead as his suspect status was announced and refused to answer questions from awaiting journalists. A crowd which had been attending a concert in the town square earlier listened to the announcement and several people gasped audibly.”
In “Villagers back Madeleine McCann’s parents”, the paper journeys to Rothey, Leicestershire, the McCanns’ home town. Michelle Canilleri, who lives in Rothley, shares with the world: “I can’t believe it. This is such a shock. They have got the wrong people. No way in the world would either Kate or Gerry harm any of their children.”
THE INDEPENDENT front page: “FROM ANGUISHED PARENT, TO GRIEVING MOTHER, TO SUSPECT.”
“Shortly before 11am, Mrs McCann’s spokeswoman, Justine McGuinness, revealed that the 39-year-old GP was being made an arguida – official suspect – in the case. And then she uttered the six short words which will be inconceivable to some who have followed this case and a confirmation of long-held suspicions to others. ‘Kate fears she will be charged,’ Ms McGuinness said.”
THE TIMES front page: A picture of the McCanns meeting the Pope.
Madeleine McCann The Public Spectacle
Posted: 8th, September 2007 | In: Madeleine McCann Comments (1,454) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink
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September 10th, 2007 at 10:01 pm
Channel 4 News
http://www.channel4.com/player/v2/player.jsp?showId=9032
September 10th, 2007 at 9:57 pm
Looks like the evidence is all becoming more conclusive.
http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91210-1283359,00.html
September 10th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
Oh dear Moderation - I’m in my early 40’s with long plaits (well, sometimes, when I’m doing the gardening) … no twirls though - is it time for a rethink?
September 10th, 2007 at 9:46 pm
1415 - Estrela
You are more than welcome - you have a beautiful Country, and I have greatly enjoyed getting to know some of your fellow Portuguese during the course of this case.
I have a great deal of admiration for your Police force, and every faith that they will solve this case and justice will be properly served.
September 10th, 2007 at 8:46 pm
…sorry ! I meant thanks for the link to sebastian 1414
September 10th, 2007 at 8:44 pm
1413
That’s the link, many thanks
September 10th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Oops…!! breaking news not good !! Where was Gerry five weeks after Madeleine disappeared ? was he safely out of the way in the States or somewhere ? Do we think Kate’s expression has been concealing the awful truth that she accidentally killed Maddie ? and is she a lot sneakier than we all think ? or are we just jumping to nasty conclusions ? …or me at any rate, all things are possible
September 10th, 2007 at 8:33 pm
I want to thank Molly, Edna, A.J ….fo the supportive words about MY country.
Another note, I would please like to post here as a way to claim for GOOD sense to all of you who read this:
Portuguese authorities are not playing, they are intitled to be seen as serious and responsable sources as from any other European country that belongs to the same Union. So, of course I get astonished about The Sun front pages news on the ‘imcompetence’ here and there about PJ without based on nothing to say so!
What causes all this mediatic opinions is EASY, it’s nothing but the silence we get from the portuguese authorities of how they are working and how they are leading to solve this out, they don’t tell, and they don’t have to! only when conclusions are taken as OFFICIAL and that is far to be taken….
So, please stop ‘bashing’ on PJ. Either Portuguese and English people should be UNITED on this case and not the contrary.
September 10th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
1412
I think this is the article:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article2409952.ece
September 10th, 2007 at 7:02 pm
…supposing, just supposing Kate did accidentally kill Maddie ? I don’t think Gerry did because I think he is just too naive and what you see is what you get but she is beginnig to bother me..
September 10th, 2007 at 6:47 pm
1403
Well - I was being charitable at first when I thought the fixed expression was one caused because she is holding herself desperately in check because the reality of what may have happened to her daughter is too awfuul to contemplate but there is just no change is there ? she looks the same in every picture and her eyes never look at anyone, just middle distance all the time. I wish I could find the link I was told about which led to some eminent Psychiatrists’s summing up of her because it was right on the button, and it wasn’t nice !!
September 10th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
1402
Perhaps Kate has sedated herself a bit aswell?
September 10th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
I would just like to see some change of expression on Kate’s face now please, just a tear or two or anything other than that fixed mask with eyes that don’t look anywhere, it’s beginning to weird me out !!
September 10th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
Is there any new thread? It is difficult to read …
September 10th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
No, 40 with short spikey hair.
September 10th, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Should have been post 1376 Gressin.
September 10th, 2007 at 3:14 pm
Fizz. 1397
Sorry I should have said, as always, IMO! I shouldn’t denigrate on first impressions. But I did think the opposite of you without even thinking of the McCanns. It’s all in the interpretation.
You’re not really mid-fifties with long long plaits and twirls are you???????????
September 10th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Moderation - Must take my plaits out now or people might think I’m creepy!! I don’t remember the mother smiling either.
September 10th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Fizz, I found the parents of that girl really really creepy today.
A middle aged woman with her her plaited like a 10 year old?
The dad crying while the mother smiled and stroked him??….
Were their kids educated at home?
no no no. But again, who knows?
I just remmeber that Asian girl that went missing some years ago and her father cried and appealed… she then appeared and detailed all his abuse (physical and psychological) as the reason she had run. She never went back home again. he said he’d only done it in her best interests!!!
No…….
Gressin 1736
When the reporter from the Mirror pointed Murat out to the police they said they already had him under observation. She was just trying to puff herself a bit…. she’s gone very quiet since then though.
So someone or something set the police on Murat in the first place.
September 10th, 2007 at 2:40 pm
Compare the anguish on the faces of the parents of missing 15yr old Rosemary to that of the McCanns. Is it just me or does it say it all!!
September 10th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Just to say, there is a Ben Elton quality to this case ..:-P
September 10th, 2007 at 2:04 pm
1368 Moderation says:
“Maybe I am too involved in fiction !!”
Moderation, if I may make one suggestion, here it is….
Yes, you may be too involved in “fiction” as you say and need to think outside the box a wee bit more. A good place to start might me right here on this very forum in your own backyard.. For example, was it not already established (and quite obvious) that gecko100 = Christoph? Yet, you continue to believe they are 2 separate posters and talk to them as such. Clues, Moderation. Look for clues. Timelines you can worry about later….because you don’t have all the pieces yet.No One does. But clues, evidence, facts, etc.
Yes, the timeline btwn 6 - 8:30PM was a short window in which such a tragic accident could have taken place. Yet, an even shorter windiow is from 9:15PM when Gerry checked in on his kids and all was OK and 10:00PM when Kate discovered “someone has taken Madeleine”.
So the timeline is an enigma to the police (sort of) and perhaps the way to look at it now are what are the inconsistencies?? What are the consistencies??? Yeah, the window of time for either or to have happened is short, but in 2 1/2 hours an accidental death is more likely to have happened than a break in and an abduction in 45 minutes. Both are possible, but one is much more likely to have happened, given all the other information on the table today. Thank God for DNA!!! I credit your fellow Brits for that breakthrough
N’est-ce pas?
—————-
Mods and Admin
gecko and christophe are two entirely different posters
September 10th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Hello All - Christoph, Molly, bulldump et al
Well, well, well - that was a long thread! Managed to read it all, though.
Few comments;
a) Madeleine as an autistic child: possible - she might have had Asperger’s syndrome, which is not high on the autism spectrum but very characteristic (my step-son has it);
b) no body - no crime: there was a crime in the States long time ago - forgive me lack of details - where someone has been convinced on the base on the blood found. Even if the body was never found the police acted on the assumption noone could survive with loss of 3 litres of blood;
c) bllod specks: they could come from litlle would or a scratch, you are saying. What about, of it has been proved to be the blood from the artery, let’s say carotid blood?
d) the blood could have been dropped in the boot on the May 3rd, just recovered after 25 days - that would explain why The McCanns hired the car straight after their friend
e) 338: I could never understand myself Kate - bright colours issue. Someone told me here that it might be a way of showing the hope your daughter is still alive. That’s a good point - however, I still see some incongruency in it
f) Blunger - excellent post re kids and their betrayed innocence. BTW, I felt disgusted when Gerry reported that they ‘informed the twins of Madeleine’s dissapearence’ with ‘carefully chosen words’ - not that much of a sensitivity when comes to kids in the cinemas, eh?
g) there were inconsistencies from the beginning, for example;
a) PJ saying McCanns destroyed forensics as everyone has been invited to the apartment - Gerry wrote how unfair and hurtful it was, as (I do not remember exact words) ‘when you are looking for the missing child you are checking the wardrobes, you look under the bed, noone is thinking about forensics’
and
the same Gerry stated ‘from the very beginning it was obvious to us she was abducted’ and something about ‘the state of the flat’ so abduction left no questions
but
what made lot of people blind for that (me too) was the fact that the whole thing did not appeal to out intelect and logic, but to emotions first (child! missing child! peados!)
I have to say, I was so shocked by the idea and started to imagine myself in the situation like that immediately - what would that be, if my niece had been ’snatched’? - the very image of that left me heartbroken, and that distorted my logic.
Every time I should have though of the whole case, my mind was being diverted into my niece and emotions were overwhelming.
But then - Kate jogging without cuddlecat (clinging to it obssesively on any other occasion though), Gerry’s bizzare blog etc. - I do not know if they are guilty, though (just to give them credit of trust everyone who is not convicted deserves)
Ah, Molly: the information about Madeleine’s scent in the friends’ apartment has been published in first few days after her dissapearance. Everyone focused on the supermarket trail than. But that means the evidence has been fresh.
September 10th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Breaking news on sky fresh searches to begin in the hunt for Madeleine, lets hope it brings about a new arrest and the discovery of madeleine alive
September 10th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
I would say there is some truth in the statement below: (taken from an earlier post)
“…..but the english people think they are the King of the world for us(and other countries). Why???”
September 10th, 2007 at 11:42 am
I’ve been following this forum for a few days and have a few questions that have been bothering me.
1) If Maddie was indeed found dead by Kate at approximately 10pm, and then Kate returned to the tapas bar claiming the child had been abducted, when could she have informed Gerry of their daughter’s death? She couldn’t have told him on the way back to the apartment - apparently, there were at least 6 other people with them (all of the Tapas9 except Mrs Webster), possibly bar staff too (?), and presumably all would have been running. If O’Brien and Tanner were somehow involved (by providing a sedative), when would they all have found the time to confer on a course of action to cover their tracks? There just doesn’t seem to be enough time for them to do so. Plus, they must have been plastered if they’d consumed 14 bottles of wine in 1 1/2 hours (8.30-10pm) - that’s about a bottle and a half each. Indeed, how could Kate have cleverly hidden the body in such a state?
2) How long was Kate gone? 10, 15 minutes? Is this how long it would take to go to the apartment, discover the child was missing, search the apartment, look in the immediate vicinity - perhaps calling out the child’s name, too - and then return to the bar? Was she gone longer than the above scenario would allow? Has there been a re-enactment of Kate’s movements that night?
3) If Portuguese sniffer dogs detected the child’s scent at a nearby supermarket car park, is this car park in the same direction in which the child-carrying stranger was headed when Tanner says she saw him?
4) Cuddle Cat. Let’s assume that Kate discovers the child dead and decides to claim there has been an abduction. OK, how to make this believable? Open the window shutters. But Cuddle Cat worries me. How devious and on the ball would you have to be to come up with that? That is, putting the toy on the ledge in order to support your abduction claim. Would you have thought of that? I wouldn’t have, and certainly not after having consumed a fair bit wine (if Kate did indeed drink a lot that night).
Again, there wouldn’t have been time, and there wouldn’t have been clarity of thought on Kate’s part if she’d just found her child dead.
5) If the child had died earlier - before the McCanns went to dinner - wouldn’t they have behaved differently at dinner? Have any of the friends made statements concerning that? Did they drink less? Pick at their food? Look pre-occupied? Did they laugh? Did they initiate conversation?
Eva
September 10th, 2007 at 11:19 am
“1381 pete Says:
September 10th, 2007 at 10:23 am
Roll on devolution…then they would be reported as a ‘Scottish couple’ rather than a British or English one.”
Very good !
September 10th, 2007 at 11:07 am
You’ve got something right there Edna (1385). I’m American, which I’m very proud of, but when it comes to travel Americans & Brits both act with a sense of entitlement. I’ve been to the Algarve and I’m disgusted how the papers have blatently tried to disgrace such a wonderful warm culture. Through the years they have been welcoming to outsiders despite the unwanted westernization of their simple happy life. Yes, insults were yelled at Kate outside of the police headquarters so an entire country is ridiculed because one or two of their people decided to momentarily act the way Americans and British act everyday.
When you walk past them they smile, because they are genuine. It’s not because they want your tourism dollars, that money doesn’t go to them, it goes to the British and German developers who paid the Portuguese goverment to take away their land.
Don’t get me wrong I know the Portuguese have their shortfalls too just like we do, but at least they’re not dicks about it.
September 10th, 2007 at 10:50 am
This was the article about the police officer on the madeleine case in the early days, seems like he has been investigated, I hear that sniffer dogs are going back over to portugal along with British and American police to look through all the evidence the last time the British Police were over there they dug up murats garden … I am still on the fence about him
From The TimesJune 11, 2007
Madeleine officer charged over another missing girl
David Brown in Tangier
The investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann was in chaos last night after the detective coordinating the hunt for her abductor was charged with criminal offences over another notorious missing child case.
Goncalo Amaral and four other Portuguese police officers were charged over the weekend with offences relating to the inquiry into the disappearance of Joana Cipriano from a village seven miles from where Madeleine was abducted.
The nine-year-old girl has not been seen since her disappearance three years ago but her mother and uncle were convicted of murdering and dismembering Joana because she caught them having an incestuous relationship. Joana’s mother, Leonor, has alleged that she was beaten into a confession during a police interrogation that took place without her lawyer or the knowledge of the public prosecutor.
Portugal’s Ministerio Publico, the district attorney, confirmed last night that it had charged three police officers with torture, a fourth with omission of evidence and a fifth with falsification of documents. It did not reveal who had been charged with which offence.
Madeleine: one fact, many lies, endless grief
Penny Wark charts a story that became global, lurid and often invented
Background
The power of mums
Lay off the McCanns
Leaving children alone
Madeleine: a very modern melodrama
Multimedia
Pictures: searching for Madeleine
Video: McCann family start holiday
Related Links
Campaign trail stops so family can grieve
Despite the charges, Mr Amaral, the co-ordinator of the Policia Judiciaria in Portimao, has not been suspended from working on the Madeleine investigation, which started 39 days ago.
Madeleine’s parents, Kate and Gerry McCann, were informed of the charges by a Foreign Office representative yesterday. A spokesman for the family said: “They do not remember meeting Goncalo Amaral face to face but naturally they were concerned to hear of the charges.”
Police sources said that Mr Amaral was “very angry” about the allegations and was considering taking action against the Ministerio Publico. “He is very professional and has had a lot of success in solving cases,” the source said. “He is very upset because reporters never speak of these successes.”
In echoes of the Madeleine case, the investigation into Joana’s disappearance got off to a false start when the Republican National Guard failed to seal off the house where Joana was last seen. Mr and Mrs McCann, from Rothley, Leicestershire, have also expressed frustration at delays in the early stages of the investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance.
Last night it emerged that a witness who claims to have seen Madeleine days after she disappeared had still not been properly interviewed by police even though detectives had assured Mr and Mrs McCann that they had fully investigated the sighting.
Mari Olli says that she saw the girl at a petrol station on the outskirts of Marrakesh in Morocco on July 9. Despite contacting Portuguese, Spanish and British police, she has still not been formally interviewed and no statement has been taken. Portuguese police admitted last week that they were still waiting for footage from the CCTV camera at the petrol station.
A McCann family source said: “We had got the impression that they had sat down with her and gone through her statement in detail, which is not the case. The Portuguese police have complained about the lack of cooperation from the Moroccan authorities. None of it fills you with confidence.”
Madeleine’s family reacted with disbelief to the claims against Mr Amaral. The missing girl’s aunt Philomena said: “Just about every country in the world is watching this. What do you think the [Portuguese] government would do? Would they have some kind of rogue policeman there? I doubt it. I find it highly unlikely. No way would they have him on such a high-profile case.”
September 10th, 2007 at 10:37 am
The Scottish papers certainly consider them scottish, as they are today displaying more ‘loyalty’ than the English papers:
What the Scottish papers say
Many of the papers run with the case of the missing four-year-old Madeleine McCann.
The Record says that the parents of the little girl returned to Britain under a cloud of suspicion - as friends insisted: “They are not running away.”
Gerry and Kate McCann arrive home without their daughter - after insisting Portuguese police were trying to set them up, writes the Scottish Sun.
The Herald’s front page headline uses the words of Gerry McCann: “We had nothing to do with Madeleine’s disappearance.”
The Press and Journal say that the McCanns flew home and insisted they were not running away and The Courier reports that the couple made the sad return to Britain without their eldest child.
The Scottish Daily Mail reports Portuguese police claims that Kate and Gerry McCann should be charged with killing their daughter Madeleine and covering up the evidence.
The Scottish Daily Express also report on Portuguese police sources which say there is enough evidence to convict the parents.
FROM bbc news
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/6986654.stm
Notice any differences in approach?